The invention relates in general to emergency medical care and in particular to apparatus for securely attaching medical/surgical devices to an injured person carrier, such as a litter or stretcher.
Every day people are injured, especially during armed conflicts, terrorism, accidents and natural disasters. The injuries may be serious and may require the injured person to be placed on a stretcher, litter or similar injured person carrier. An example of a litter is a NATO litter 10 shown in FIG. 1. The NATO litter 10 includes a pair of parallel poles 12 and a fabric that forms a bed 14 extending between the poles 12. The poles 12 may be made of, for example, wood or a metal such as aluminum. Litter 10 may include stirrups 16 for supporting the litter 10 on the ground or a platform. As seen in FIG. 3, litter 10 may also include cross beams 17 that extend under the bed 14 between opposing stirrups 16.
The injured person may receive medical attention at or near the geographical site of the injury and then be transported via a litter by foot, land vehicle, air vehicle or other transporter to a medical treatment facility. The injured person may require treatment and/or surgery before being transported to a medical treatment facility. Sometimes one or more medical and/or surgical devices are required for treatment and/or surgery for the injured person prior to and/or while being transported to a medical treatment facility. Such medical and/or surgical devices may include, for example, retractors, arm boards, IV poles, suction devices, lights, monitors and other devices.
To keep such medical/surgical devices close to the injured person, the medical/surgical devices may be somehow associated with the injured patient carrier. In combat areas, the transport of an injured person on a litter may be by two people who are walking or running over rough terrain, by a helicopter or other air vehicle that is subject to unpredictable air currents, by a military ambulance over rough terrain, or combinations of such transporters. The resulting ride could therefore be subject to unforeseen air currents or rapid aircraft movements that cause the aircraft to drop suddenly, make rapid and sharp turns and otherwise continue on its journey to transport the injured person(s) to a medical facility as quickly as possible. Such rapid transporter movements require that the medical/surgical devices are secured against reacting to the sudden change of movements and directions by flying off into space and/or within the transport vehicle and possibly further injuring the injured person or injuring persons who are assisting the injured person and/or flying or driving the transporter.
Some stretcher based operating tables, like the English table, do not enable the placement and use of self-retaining fixed retractors like the Bookwalter retractors. This limitation greatly inhibits the scope and ease of surgeries possible on these platforms. The placement of arm boards and leg/foot rests on stretcher based operating tables is possible but it is very limited and cumbersome. The SMEED (Special Medical Emergency Evacuation Device) platform and CMS MOJO™ ready station allow for attachment of multiple devices in multiple locations, but they do not allow for the attachment of a wide variety of surgical devices necessary for better exposure and ease of operation. While the SMEED allows for attachment of valuable monitoring devices necessary in an ICU or transport setting, it cannot accept attachments for surgical retractors and does not facilitate better exposure, positioning or ease of operation. The MOJO™ ready station allows for attachment of some devices like trays and lights, which may help in surgery, but does not allow for attachment of arm boards, retractors, and leg rests.
A need exists for an apparatus for securely fixing a wide variety of medical/surgical devices to a litter for use as an operating table and for transporting the litter along with the medical/surgical devices and the patient.